This subclass is supposed to be a character who can use their knowledge of runes to bolster their abilities in the field of combat as well as being able to use their runes to lay magical traps to hinder enemies.
Rune Witch Spells:
Starting at 3rd level, you always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Rune Witch Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don't count against the number of artificer spells you prepare. Here is the table:
When you prepare your spells, all spells with a caring time of one action, one bonus action or one reaction are inscribed as runes onto an object you can touch. You inscribe each spell once and you do not have to inscribe them all obto the same object, using artisan's tools that reflect the material you are inscribing. When you cast spells inscribed in this way, the runes take the place of the artisan's tools you require as well as any other non-costed materials. If the spell has verbal components you still must use them. If the spell has Somatic components you must have a hand free (not holding the object) to trace the rune.
[Example: you have inscribed Revivify onto your sword. You cast the spell by chanting esoteric gobbledegook, tracing the hand not holding the sword over the rune and sprinkling some diamond dust. Earlier that day you had taken the precaution of inscribing the spell into your sword with smith's tools.]
Martial Adept (3rd level):
You gain proficiency with martial weapons and can use your INT modifier in place of your STR or DEX when you attack with a magical weapon.
[This artificer will have to invest DEX, CON and INT for AC, HP and spellcasting - if you goes for a melee build you will probably be limited to a rapier for the best damage or invest STR as well. This feature should cut that need to invest a fourth start. If you go for a ranged build you'll miss out on all those smiting spells and will still need defence in the form of AC and HP to a lesser extent so I think this is fine.]
Empowered Runes (3rd Level):
Once each day, you can cast a spell you have inscribed and empower the rune so that the casting is more forceful. When you do so, the spell bypasses damage resistance and one creature of your choice has disadvantage on the first saving throw against that spell. Casting a spell in this way overloads the runes and causes them to disappear. You must prepare the spell again before you can use it (or you can prepare a different spell at the end of your long rest). You regain the ability to use this feature at the of a long rest.
[Heightened Spell and bypassing damage resistance at the cost of not being able to cast that spell again till the end of your adventuring day. I can see this being used with a final spell slot or something along those lines so please tell me if it's too powerful. If there's some way to exploit it, it's probably a phrasing error.]
Rune Empowered Blade (5th Level):
At the end of a long rest you can inscribe a weapon of your choice with magical runes. If the weapon is not already magical, it becomes magical for the purposes of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical damage. In addition, the runes enable you to strike with increased speed. When you take the Attack action with, your Rune Empowered Blade you can make one additional attack as part of that action. This feature does not stack with Extra Attack or similar features.
[The first part is a gimmick that will only really come up if the artificer is really, really nice and gives away all the magic weapons they create.]
Warding Glyphs (9th level):
When you cast Glyph of Warding, it no longer requires a cost component for you. You can cast it once without expending a spell slot. For you, the casting time is reduced to 1 minute. [There's no other feature here like in the original version. As such I've added a casting time reduction - this means that when the artificer wants to carry it the rest of the party doesn't have to stand around for an entire hour in the dungeon (probably taking a short rest that the artificer won't get to benefit from). It's still long enough not to be useful to cast in combat.]
Improved Rune Empowered Weapon:
Your Rune Empowered Weapon now deals 1d6 additional damage. You can decide the damage type of the additional damage as an action, using the relevant tools (decided by your DM) to adapt the runes you have inscribed. This damage type can be acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison or thunder.
[This feature was edited in. We'll see how it stacks for power in playtesting.]
Adaptive Runes (15th level):
You have trained long and hard, mastering the art of changing and empowering your runes on the fly. You gain the following benefits:
- Your empowered weapon now deals 2d6 extra damage. You can also change the damage type using a bonus action, not an action. [With Extra Attack this averages at 14 extra damage per round with the potential to exploit a damage vulnerability every now and then. It was edited to 2d6 and the original 1d6 was placed in a 9th level feature with a slower time to adapt it. I also removed the options of psychic and radiant damage.]
- Your spell runes can be channelled through your Rune Empowered Weapon to change the damaging energy of your spells. When you cast a spell whose damage type is not bludgeoning, piercing or slashing, you can change one damage type of that spell to the damage type dealt by your Rune Empowered Weapon. [At 15th level this doesn't strike me as too powerful but combined with the other part of this feature it seems about right.]
[Please have a look through this and give me feedback. If there's something you don't like, tell me but also suggest what changes it needs or what should be put in its place. If you think it needs scrapping tell me what you would have instead as well, otherwise I'll just make mistakes over and over without really improving much. I'm trying to get better at making balanced homebrew I can actually publish so tips on processes to go through would also be appreciated. Thanks in advance!]
I like this new version a lot better. You could probably throw in a D6 of "rune damage" already at level 9, upping it to 2D6 at level 15 (perhaps do a bit of playtesting though to make sure it doesn't get too powerful or too weak). I would limit the extra damage type to one of cold, fire, force, lightning or thunder though. Radiant and Necrotic isn't really the Artificer's thing and Psychic damage just feels odd.
Well, I know things have changed a lot when you're suggesting I increase power. ;-)
And I think that as for psychic necrotic and radiant, I'll cut psychic and radiant but keep necrotic - after all, it does say 'Witch' on the title of this subclass.
I have playtesting on the agenda sometime next week.
I didn't throw in that extra damage because I thought that it might be too powerful, but since all your previous comments were about stripping back I'll trust you when you talk about going the other way and see what happens in the playtesting. Mind you, I suppose while the Battle Smith and Armourer get lower direct DPR, they also get riders on their attacks (armourer) or a Steel Defender they can command to attack which more or less makes up the difference (Battle Smith).
Mage armour is a pretty bad spell in this context, as you don't have the AS to pick it over medium armour and it heavily taxes a half caster's spell slots if used. Of course not all class spells need to be bangers, but mage armour's only utility is if you are ambushed while you're sleeping so don't have time to put on your armour, but also costs an action you might not be able to afford.
As for replacements, there's two ways you can go. If you're fine with a somewhat more fragile defence, any utility might be cool. An artificer who learned to read runes might for example know Comprehend Languages, or maybe their eye for such enhancements means they always have Detect Magic prepared. There's a bunch of flavour options here, so go wild.
On the other hand, one thing that stands out is that the new spell list substantially weakens your staying power on the front line. Going for medium armour + 14 DEX instead of heavy armour + 15 STR is a fair trade-off (tl:dr initiative+dex save good) but as you don't get Battlesmith's shield spell or armorer's mirror image spell (this is 2nd level though), d8 hit points can present a problem. Armor of Agathys took care of this in your previous build, but alternatives include aforementioned battlesmith/armorer spells or Shield of Faith.
Level 3
The bonus tool proficiency is always listed as one of the features. However, you also already have 3 features at level 3, which we shouldn't exceed. I'd personally place both martial weapon proficiency and tool proficiency in a simple 'bonus proficiency' feature, then make the INT-modifier part of Rune Casting. This is a slight nerf to martial adept (as you're less flexible with picking up weapons on the fly), but I did personally think the limitation to rune items from earlier was an interesting flavour bit that strengthens the class' identity. Sort of like monk's dedicated weapon or kensei weapons.
Level 5
Rune empowered blade, as we're an artificer with either an infusion or a magic weapon, does exactly the same as extra attack 9/10 times. It'd probably be easier to just convert this to extra attack. A slight boost on paper, but so situational it'd probably not come up in game unless you or the DM specifically plans a situation for it to matter.
Other than that, it looks fine from where I'm standing. Try testing it alongside a properly built ranger (fighting from the same range) to compare their combat prowess if possible. That seems to be a decent point of reference.
Okay thanks. I'll swap out Mage Armour for Shield (because yes, that will help with the fragility in a balanced way).
Cool, I'm always happy to pick up on flavour improvements.
Yep, makes sense. I'll convert it to Extra Attack.
Making it an easier read is also really helpful so once I've done that I'm going to do a draft on the language - to make it more concise while not changing any of the rules.
(Thanks for the playtesting tip! I'll be sure to do that - along other things.)
Edit: I've actually just popped these in the language edit I'm writing now (mostly).
Trained for the battlefield, Rune Witches are learned in the ancient language of glyphs. Using these eldritch symbols, a Rune Witch is a force to be treated on the battlefield, using their unique abilities the bolster their offence and defence with powerful effects both to protect themselves and to harm or hinder foes. A Rune Witch is also adapt at laying hidden glyphs to trap or annihilate foes foolish enough to trigger the wards.
Tools of the Trade:
When you adopt this specialization at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with martial weapons. You also gain proficiency with smith's tools. If you already have this tool proficiency, you gain proficiency with one other type of artisan's tools of your choice
Rune Witch Spells:
Starting at 3rd level, you always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Rune Witch Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don't count against the number of artificer spells you prepare. Here is the table:
3rd: Shield, Wrathful Smite
5th: Warding Bond, Branding Smite
9th: Glyph of Warding, Spirit Shroud
13th: Fire Shield, Staggering Smite
17th: Hallow, Teleportation Circle
Rune Casting:
Starting at 3rd level, when you prepare your spells, all spells with a casting time of one action, one bonus action or one reaction are inscribed as runes onto an object you can touch. You inscribe each spell once and you can inscribe the shield on as many or as few items as you want, using artisan's tools that reflect the material you are inscribing. When you cast spells inscribed in this way, the runes take the place of the artisan's tools you require as well as any other non-costed materials. If the spell has verbal components you still must use them. If the spell has Somatic components you must have a hand free (not holding the object) to trace the rune. Furthermore, when you attack with a weapon that you have inscribed with this feature, you may add your Intelligence modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, to the attack and damage rolls.
Empowered Runes:
Beginning at 3rd level, once each day, you can cast a spell you have inscribed and empower the rune so that the casting is more forceful. When you do so, the spell bypasses damage resistance and one creature of your choice has disadvantage on the first saving throw against that spell. Casting a spell in this way overloads the runes and causes them to disappear. You must prepare the spell again before you can use it (or you can prepare a different spell at the end of your long rest). You regain the ability to use this feature at the of a long rest.
Extra Attack:
Beginning at 5th level, you can now attack twice instead of once whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Warding Glyphs:
Starting at 9th level, when you cast Glyph of Warding, it no longer requires a cost component for you. You can cast it once without expending a spell slot, regaining the ability to do so at the end of a long rest. For you, the casting time is reduced to 1 minute.
Rune Empowered Weapon:
Starting at 9th level, at the end of a long rest you can inscribe a weapon of your choice with magical runes. If the weapon is not already magical, it becomes magical for the purposes of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical damage. Your Rune Empowered Weapon deals 1d6 additional damage. You can change the type of the additional damage as an action, using the relevant tools (decided by your DM) to adapt the runes you have inscribed. This damage type can be acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison or thunder.
Adaptive Runes:
You have trained long and hard, mastering the art of changing and empowering your runes on the fly. Staying at 15th level, you gain the following benefits:
- Your empowered weapon now deals 2d6 extra damage. You can also change the damage type using a bonus action, not an action.
- Your spell runes can be channelled through your Rune Empowered Weapon to change the damaging energy of your spells. When you cast a spell whose damage type is not bludgeoning, piercing or slashing, you can change one damage type of that spell to the damage type dealt by your Rune Empowered Weapon.
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Chilling kinda vibe.
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Rune Witch:
This subclass is supposed to be a character who can use their knowledge of runes to bolster their abilities in the field of combat as well as being able to use their runes to lay magical traps to hinder enemies.
Rune Witch Spells:
Starting at 3rd level, you always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Rune Witch Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don't count against the number of artificer spells you prepare. Here is the table:
3rd: Shield, Wrathful Smite [Shield replaces Mage Armour]
5th: Warding Bond, Branding Smite
9th: Glyph of Warding, Spirit Shroud
13th: Fire Shield, Staggering Smite
17th: Hallow, Teleportation Circle
Features:
Rune Casting (3rd Level):
When you prepare your spells, all spells with a caring time of one action, one bonus action or one reaction are inscribed as runes onto an object you can touch. You inscribe each spell once and you do not have to inscribe them all obto the same object, using artisan's tools that reflect the material you are inscribing. When you cast spells inscribed in this way, the runes take the place of the artisan's tools you require as well as any other non-costed materials. If the spell has verbal components you still must use them. If the spell has Somatic components you must have a hand free (not holding the object) to trace the rune.
[Example: you have inscribed Revivify onto your sword. You cast the spell by chanting esoteric gobbledegook, tracing the hand not holding the sword over the rune and sprinkling some diamond dust. Earlier that day you had taken the precaution of inscribing the spell into your sword with smith's tools.]
Martial Adept (3rd level):
You gain proficiency with martial weapons and can use your INT modifier in place of your STR or DEX when you attack with a magical weapon.
[This artificer will have to invest DEX, CON and INT for AC, HP and spellcasting - if you goes for a melee build you will probably be limited to a rapier for the best damage or invest STR as well. This feature should cut that need to invest a fourth start. If you go for a ranged build you'll miss out on all those smiting spells and will still need defence in the form of AC and HP to a lesser extent so I think this is fine.]
Empowered Runes (3rd Level):
Once each day, you can cast a spell you have inscribed and empower the rune so that the casting is more forceful. When you do so, the spell bypasses damage resistance and one creature of your choice has disadvantage on the first saving throw against that spell. Casting a spell in this way overloads the runes and causes them to disappear. You must prepare the spell again before you can use it (or you can prepare a different spell at the end of your long rest). You regain the ability to use this feature at the of a long rest.
[Heightened Spell and bypassing damage resistance at the cost of not being able to cast that spell again till the end of your adventuring day. I can see this being used with a final spell slot or something along those lines so please tell me if it's too powerful. If there's some way to exploit it, it's probably a phrasing error.]
Rune Empowered Blade (5th Level):
At the end of a long rest you can inscribe a weapon of your choice with magical runes. If the weapon is not already magical, it becomes magical for the purposes of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical damage. In addition, the runes enable you to strike with increased speed. When you take the Attack action with, your Rune Empowered Blade you can make one additional attack as part of that action. This feature does not stack with Extra Attack or similar features.
[The first part is a gimmick that will only really come up if the artificer is really, really nice and gives away all the magic weapons they create.]
Warding Glyphs (9th level):
When you cast Glyph of Warding, it no longer requires a cost component for you. You can cast it once without expending a spell slot. For you, the casting time is reduced to 1 minute. [There's no other feature here like in the original version. As such I've added a casting time reduction - this means that when the artificer wants to carry it the rest of the party doesn't have to stand around for an entire hour in the dungeon (probably taking a short rest that the artificer won't get to benefit from). It's still long enough not to be useful to cast in combat.]
Improved Rune Empowered Weapon:
Your Rune Empowered Weapon now deals 1d6 additional damage. You can decide the damage type of the additional damage as an action, using the relevant tools (decided by your DM) to adapt the runes you have inscribed. This damage type can be acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison or thunder.
[This feature was edited in. We'll see how it stacks for power in playtesting.]
Adaptive Runes (15th level):
You have trained long and hard, mastering the art of changing and empowering your runes on the fly. You gain the following benefits:
- Your empowered weapon now deals 2d6 extra damage. You can also change the damage type using a bonus action, not an action. [With Extra Attack this averages at 14 extra damage per round with the potential to exploit a damage vulnerability every now and then. It was edited to 2d6 and the original 1d6 was placed in a 9th level feature with a slower time to adapt it. I also removed the options of psychic and radiant damage.]
- Your spell runes can be channelled through your Rune Empowered Weapon to change the damaging energy of your spells. When you cast a spell whose damage type is not bludgeoning, piercing or slashing, you can change one damage type of that spell to the damage type dealt by your Rune Empowered Weapon. [At 15th level this doesn't strike me as too powerful but combined with the other part of this feature it seems about right.]
[Please have a look through this and give me feedback. If there's something you don't like, tell me but also suggest what changes it needs or what should be put in its place. If you think it needs scrapping tell me what you would have instead as well, otherwise I'll just make mistakes over and over without really improving much. I'm trying to get better at making balanced homebrew I can actually publish so tips on processes to go through would also be appreciated. Thanks in advance!]
Chilling kinda vibe.
I like this new version a lot better. You could probably throw in a D6 of "rune damage" already at level 9, upping it to 2D6 at level 15 (perhaps do a bit of playtesting though to make sure it doesn't get too powerful or too weak). I would limit the extra damage type to one of cold, fire, force, lightning or thunder though. Radiant and Necrotic isn't really the Artificer's thing and Psychic damage just feels odd.
Well, I know things have changed a lot when you're suggesting I increase power. ;-)
And I think that as for psychic necrotic and radiant, I'll cut psychic and radiant but keep necrotic - after all, it does say 'Witch' on the title of this subclass.
I have playtesting on the agenda sometime next week.
I didn't throw in that extra damage because I thought that it might be too powerful, but since all your previous comments were about stripping back I'll trust you when you talk about going the other way and see what happens in the playtesting. Mind you, I suppose while the Battle Smith and Armourer get lower direct DPR, they also get riders on their attacks (armourer) or a Steel Defender they can command to attack which more or less makes up the difference (Battle Smith).
I'm editing that post to include those benefits.
Chilling kinda vibe.
Spells:
Mage armour is a pretty bad spell in this context, as you don't have the AS to pick it over medium armour and it heavily taxes a half caster's spell slots if used. Of course not all class spells need to be bangers, but mage armour's only utility is if you are ambushed while you're sleeping so don't have time to put on your armour, but also costs an action you might not be able to afford.
As for replacements, there's two ways you can go. If you're fine with a somewhat more fragile defence, any utility might be cool. An artificer who learned to read runes might for example know Comprehend Languages, or maybe their eye for such enhancements means they always have Detect Magic prepared. There's a bunch of flavour options here, so go wild.
On the other hand, one thing that stands out is that the new spell list substantially weakens your staying power on the front line. Going for medium armour + 14 DEX instead of heavy armour + 15 STR is a fair trade-off (tl:dr initiative+dex save good) but as you don't get Battlesmith's shield spell or armorer's mirror image spell (this is 2nd level though), d8 hit points can present a problem. Armor of Agathys took care of this in your previous build, but alternatives include aforementioned battlesmith/armorer spells or Shield of Faith.
Level 3
The bonus tool proficiency is always listed as one of the features. However, you also already have 3 features at level 3, which we shouldn't exceed. I'd personally place both martial weapon proficiency and tool proficiency in a simple 'bonus proficiency' feature, then make the INT-modifier part of Rune Casting. This is a slight nerf to martial adept (as you're less flexible with picking up weapons on the fly), but I did personally think the limitation to rune items from earlier was an interesting flavour bit that strengthens the class' identity. Sort of like monk's dedicated weapon or kensei weapons.
Level 5
Rune empowered blade, as we're an artificer with either an infusion or a magic weapon, does exactly the same as extra attack 9/10 times. It'd probably be easier to just convert this to extra attack. A slight boost on paper, but so situational it'd probably not come up in game unless you or the DM specifically plans a situation for it to matter.
Other than that, it looks fine from where I'm standing. Try testing it alongside a properly built ranger (fighting from the same range) to compare their combat prowess if possible. That seems to be a decent point of reference.
Homebrew creations:
Path of the Feral Trance Barbarian Class | Thread
Wyrmforge Artificer Class | Thread
Okay thanks. I'll swap out Mage Armour for Shield (because yes, that will help with the fragility in a balanced way).
Cool, I'm always happy to pick up on flavour improvements.
Yep, makes sense. I'll convert it to Extra Attack.
Making it an easier read is also really helpful so once I've done that I'm going to do a draft on the language - to make it more concise while not changing any of the rules.
(Thanks for the playtesting tip! I'll be sure to do that - along other things.)
Edit: I've actually just popped these in the language edit I'm writing now (mostly).
Chilling kinda vibe.
Rune Witch:
Trained for the battlefield, Rune Witches are learned in the ancient language of glyphs. Using these eldritch symbols, a Rune Witch is a force to be treated on the battlefield, using their unique abilities the bolster their offence and defence with powerful effects both to protect themselves and to harm or hinder foes. A Rune Witch is also adapt at laying hidden glyphs to trap or annihilate foes foolish enough to trigger the wards.
Tools of the Trade:
When you adopt this specialization at 3rd level, you gain proficiency with martial weapons. You also gain proficiency with smith's tools. If you already have this tool proficiency, you gain proficiency with one other type of artisan's tools of your choice
Rune Witch Spells:
Starting at 3rd level, you always have certain spells prepared after you reach particular levels in this class, as shown in the Rune Witch Spells table. These spells count as artificer spells for you, but they don't count against the number of artificer spells you prepare. Here is the table:
3rd: Shield, Wrathful Smite
5th: Warding Bond, Branding Smite
9th: Glyph of Warding, Spirit Shroud
13th: Fire Shield, Staggering Smite
17th: Hallow, Teleportation Circle
Rune Casting:
Starting at 3rd level, when you prepare your spells, all spells with a casting time of one action, one bonus action or one reaction are inscribed as runes onto an object you can touch. You inscribe each spell once and you can inscribe the shield on as many or as few items as you want, using artisan's tools that reflect the material you are inscribing. When you cast spells inscribed in this way, the runes take the place of the artisan's tools you require as well as any other non-costed materials. If the spell has verbal components you still must use them. If the spell has Somatic components you must have a hand free (not holding the object) to trace the rune. Furthermore, when you attack with a weapon that you have inscribed with this feature, you may add your Intelligence modifier, instead of Strength or Dexterity, to the attack and damage rolls.
Empowered Runes:
Beginning at 3rd level, once each day, you can cast a spell you have inscribed and empower the rune so that the casting is more forceful. When you do so, the spell bypasses damage resistance and one creature of your choice has disadvantage on the first saving throw against that spell. Casting a spell in this way overloads the runes and causes them to disappear. You must prepare the spell again before you can use it (or you can prepare a different spell at the end of your long rest). You regain the ability to use this feature at the of a long rest.
Extra Attack:
Beginning at 5th level, you can now attack twice instead of once whenever you take the Attack action on your turn.
Warding Glyphs:
Starting at 9th level, when you cast Glyph of Warding, it no longer requires a cost component for you. You can cast it once without expending a spell slot, regaining the ability to do so at the end of a long rest. For you, the casting time is reduced to 1 minute.
Rune Empowered Weapon:
Starting at 9th level, at the end of a long rest you can inscribe a weapon of your choice with magical runes. If the weapon is not already magical, it becomes magical for the purposes of overcoming resistance and immunity to nonmagical damage. Your Rune Empowered Weapon deals 1d6 additional damage. You can change the type of the additional damage as an action, using the relevant tools (decided by your DM) to adapt the runes you have inscribed. This damage type can be acid, cold, fire, force, lightning, necrotic, poison or thunder.
Adaptive Runes:
You have trained long and hard, mastering the art of changing and empowering your runes on the fly. Staying at 15th level, you gain the following benefits:
- Your empowered weapon now deals 2d6 extra damage. You can also change the damage type using a bonus action, not an action.
- Your spell runes can be channelled through your Rune Empowered Weapon to change the damaging energy of your spells. When you cast a spell whose damage type is not bludgeoning, piercing or slashing, you can change one damage type of that spell to the damage type dealt by your Rune Empowered Weapon.
Chilling kinda vibe.